Category Archives: Online Marketing
Let Pathos Drive Your Digital Storytelling
Pathos.
Sure, it may be a word that you haven’t thought about since half hearing it uttered by a droning professor during a random communications class back in college. But, as communications professionals, “pathos” or the art of emotional appeal, is something we all embrace as a core function of our job. Whether drafting a press release, brainstorming around a campaign brand or developing a video script, we are constantly working to build a strong emotional connection with our target audience.
Emotional Appeal = Audience Action.
I could repeat that line five times but I’ll spare you the eye strain. When it comes down to it, building a connection with your target audience takes work. A lot of work. Your messaging and storyline needs to be authentic, aligned with the core values of your brand and most of all – you need to strike the magical chord that resonates across your audience base.
You see this strategy implemented by nonprofits across the board. On the corporate front, I frequently reference Google’s “search stories” campaign. The original “Parisian Love” ad generated a lot of buzz when it was shown during this year’s Super Bowl. In my mind, the ad is stellar. In a sense, Google represents a creative whiteboard, serving as a portal to churn up a wealth of information around whatever topic a user can imagine. In this case, the creators of the spot did an incredible job of building out a storyline around the notion of love – a theme they knew would connect with everyone.
Beyond this initial spot, Google’s real genius is expounded upon through the way they further developed their Search Stories channel. They’ve even incorporated a search stories video creator tool that allows any user to build out their own Google search story within a matter of minutes.
G-e-n-i-u-s.
Lock people in, provide them with the tools that will allow them to easily participate in your storytelling and make it easy to share the content. Search is our entry to content discovery and Google does a great job of bringing to life all of the moving parts behind their simple interface. Kudos Google.
I had a bit of fun with their video creator tool last night and love the creative door this opens to groups and brands hosting contests or other fun storytelling projects.
How to Land a Job in Social Media
and a bit of cheese to top it off…
Let’s not forget that Facebook also utilizes a similar tool to acquire user-generated content that helps them demonstrate the value of their platform. In addition, Mashable announced today that Twitter has jumped on the bandwagon with their own version of user story sharing with Twitter Tales.
In essence, it boils down to igniting your brand supporters and advocates to make the shift from being joiners, spectators and critics to actual content creators. Especially from a communications perspective, we want to know how our users are being creative about engaging with our product or brand and how those ideas will influence others to engage with us.
Take a tip from Google, Facebook and Twitter. Now, what can you do to simplify your next storytelling initiative?
5 Reasons to Check Out Microsoft Tag
Last Friday, Microsoft (client of Waggener Edstrom) announced that they were pulling Microsoft Tag out of beta following their initial announcement of the tool 18 months prior.
Though barcode technology has been around for a bit, Microsoft Tag caught my attention as an extremely user-friendly resource. You simply have to download the application to acquire the mobile reader and then log on to the Microsoft Tag site to begin creating tags.
The ease of use with this technology has already caught fire. According to the Microsoft blog:
“…more than 1 billion Tags have been printed by people and businesses all over the world. In the month of April alone, more than 20 million magazines with Tags were in the hands of U.S. consumers…
Today we can imagine a world where any physical object can become a gateway to a world of digital content and engagement: Scan a product in a newspaper, get a personalized offer, buy it on the spot, or get directions to the store to buy it later. Or, scan a poster for a play, see a preview of the performance, invite friends, and buy tickets.”
Alongside the ideas noted above, the Tag site does a fantastic job of presenting additional ways to utilize the technology.
In brief, here are 5 reasons that PR and Marketing pros should consider putting this tool to use:
1. It’s FREE – Everybody loves free. Whether you’re marketing a product, pushing a nonprofit cause or focusing on personal branding, this is a great free tool to add to the arsenal.
2. It’s EASY – GoMo news provides some nice screenshots to walk you through the dashboard layout and simple setup. Creating the badges below took me all of five minutes.
3. It’s VERSATILE – Once you create the badge, you have a small, adaptive tool that can be used digitally or printed for offline engagement via a flyer, etc.
4. It’s DIRECT – As of now, you can utilize a barcode to direct someone to a URL, send a text message, download a vCard or dial a phone number. These actions open up a host of creative opportunities for application. As an example, try scanning the two barcodes I’ve created below.
5. It’s MEASURABLE - The analytics tool provides an assortment of display options and I would imagine that it’s only a matter of time before location-based tracking is integrated.
Microsoft Tag Metrics
How can you envision putting barcode technology to use in your own work?
-Scott
Add BP to the Brandjacked Bin
Note: This post also appeared on Waggener Edstrom’s Thinkers & Doers blog.
Brandjacked.
Though brandjacking is certainly not a new concept, it’s one of those words that can quickly ignite panic in the world of social media.
Unfortunately, brands, people and products are brandjacked every day. With the lightning pace and ease by which online presence can be established and content shared, online reputation management has become more important than ever.
BP has quickly become the latest big brandjacking victim with the launch of @BPGlobalPR — a rogue Twitter account that is claiming to be BP’s PR department pumping out snarky tweets about the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.
Sample Tweet from @BPGlobalPR:
Negative people view the ocean as half empty of oil. We are dedicated to making it half full. Stay positive America! #IwantmyBPtshirt
about 12 hours ago via web
Tweets such as the one above are pulling in hundreds of followers by the minute. When I started drafting this post, the @BPGlobalPR account displayed 7,925 followers. 15 minutes have elapsed and the account currently has 9,000 followers. The account launched on May 19. Yikes.
One would hope that whoever manages BP’s official Twitter account (@BP_America) has some type of listening and monitoring process in place and is by now well aware of the @BPGlobalPR account. That being said, here are a few immediate steps that BP should consider taking … pronto.
1. Contact Twitter. Though still in beta testing, the announcement of Twitter’s Business Center is proof that Biz and the boys recognize the important role that their platform plays for businesses, and vice versa. This isn’t the first case of brandjacking and certainly won’t be the last. Given the national spotlight on the oil spill, chances are good that they’ll be sympathetic toward helping BP get their ducks in a row and shut down the @BPGlobalPR account.
In the meantime…
2. Acknowledge. Obviously, BP has a bit on its plate at the moment. That being said, someone at BP is updating the official Twitter account. At the least, acknowledge the account to your followers so that they know it is fake. It’s also important to not backlash against the @BPGlobalPR account but rather open up some dialogue and let them know that you’re aware of its existence.
3. Monitor & Respond. It appears that the originator of the @BPGlobalPR account is on a quick mission to sell some BP Cares shirts. They’re managing to build a quick following with witty, clever tweets. Tweeters and bloggers will eat this content up, and a flurry of offshoot posts and other content is sure to emerge. The best BP can do at this point is stay tuned to the conversation, monitor the follower base and respond and comment when possible.
Though it’s a rough position for BP, it’s an opportunity to offer up some quick key reminders to prevent your own brandjacking incident.
Secure Usernames — If you’re heading up social media at your company or in any way in charge of communications, I highly recommend hopping over to http://www.usernamecheck.com/. The site provides a great overall analysis of common and not-so-common social media sites. Simply type in a username at the top, and let the analysis begin to see where a particular username is already being used. Whether you plan to actively use the username or foresee potential use, lock it down on the most popular social media sites.
Think Proactively, Plan Broadly— The endless possibilities of URL and username combinations make it tough to ever create a full protective brand shield. Whether planning for a campaign or updating your crisis-comm plan, think proactively about potential secenarios and the keyword/username slate that could impact your efforts.
Have your own advice for BP or general brandjacking prevention tips to share? Feel free to post below!
